Note: This may be a bit rant-y
It wasn’t that the good guys were handed idiot balls. There were actually on the back foot the entire time.
The only reason they knew there was a plot going on was the fact Qrow interrupted the power stealing on Amber.
What if he hadn’t been there?
The Maiden Protectors (MPs from now on), would likely never have known the Autumn Maiden was gone. Let alone that she was dead and the powers stolen, not transferred in the way they knew happened.
This implies that the whole plan we see in Vol 3 was Salem’s, not Cinder’s.
That makes more sense to me, as Salem and Ozpin obviously have a history. Salem would pull the ‘fear/horror/hate/anger’ generating plan, and would have the personal knowledge to side-step Ozpin (plus likely the time to refine it). It’s very much a ‘I will destroy all that is yours and that you love in front of your eyes to show you my victory before I finally end you’ Sort of plan.
She probably wanted Cinder to take the Autumn Maiden’s powers and do to Ozpin what she did to Pyrra; destroying Ozpin’s works, his reputation, and then vanishing him so he couldn’t repair it and gradually be forgotten.
When Qrow interfered, Cinder tweaked the Vale portion of the plan to get the rest of the Autumn Maiden’s powers. This helped the original plan along as the MPs weren’t expecting it. They were looking for the power thief, not someone trying to end the world.
Meanwhile, the MPs had only realised they even had an enemy when Qrow interfered. Suddenly they have a Maiden in a position they’ve never encountered, meaning someone out there they didn’t know of knew more about the Maidens powers than the MPs did. They had to scramble to find out who the enemy was, how to deny them the rest of the Autumn Maiden’s powers, AND keep it a secret from the general population of Remnant.
It would be very hard to fight against a secret organisation that a) you only just found out about, and b) knows a lot about YOUR secret organisation.
As an aside: How did each side know where Amber was?
The MPs probably have some sort of communication schedule to keep an eye on the Maidens. They obviously don’t have a way to actively sense someone with Maiden powers as they would have used it to track down Cinder (unless the power being halved made it undetectable), which is why they’ve studied the rules of the power’s transfer.
The Bad Guys either have access to those records (bad, to worse if there’s a traitor), or given there are bug sized Grimm and Cinder has a rapport with Grimm…
It wasn’t that the good guys were handed idiot balls. There were actually on the back foot the entire time.
The only reason they knew there was a plot going on was the fact Qrow interrupted the power stealing on Amber.
What if he hadn’t been there?
The Maiden Protectors (MPs from now on), would likely never have known the Autumn Maiden was gone. Let alone that she was dead and the powers stolen, not transferred in the way they knew happened.
This implies that the whole plan we see in Vol 3 was Salem’s, not Cinder’s.
That makes more sense to me, as Salem and Ozpin obviously have a history. Salem would pull the ‘fear/horror/hate/anger’ generating plan, and would have the personal knowledge to side-step Ozpin (plus likely the time to refine it). It’s very much a ‘I will destroy all that is yours and that you love in front of your eyes to show you my victory before I finally end you’ Sort of plan.
She probably wanted Cinder to take the Autumn Maiden’s powers and do to Ozpin what she did to Pyrra; destroying Ozpin’s works, his reputation, and then vanishing him so he couldn’t repair it and gradually be forgotten.
When Qrow interfered, Cinder tweaked the Vale portion of the plan to get the rest of the Autumn Maiden’s powers. This helped the original plan along as the MPs weren’t expecting it. They were looking for the power thief, not someone trying to end the world.
Meanwhile, the MPs had only realised they even had an enemy when Qrow interfered. Suddenly they have a Maiden in a position they’ve never encountered, meaning someone out there they didn’t know of knew more about the Maidens powers than the MPs did. They had to scramble to find out who the enemy was, how to deny them the rest of the Autumn Maiden’s powers, AND keep it a secret from the general population of Remnant.
It would be very hard to fight against a secret organisation that a) you only just found out about, and b) knows a lot about YOUR secret organisation.
As an aside: How did each side know where Amber was?
The MPs probably have some sort of communication schedule to keep an eye on the Maidens. They obviously don’t have a way to actively sense someone with Maiden powers as they would have used it to track down Cinder (unless the power being halved made it undetectable), which is why they’ve studied the rules of the power’s transfer.
The Bad Guys either have access to those records (bad, to worse if there’s a traitor), or given there are bug sized Grimm and Cinder has a rapport with Grimm…